Kosovo's secession merits aid

President George W. Bush took the right course in recognizing Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state. But that was the easy part.

After years of war and ethnic cleansing, Kosovo is a mess and in need of serious foreign aid. Unemployment hovers around 60 percent, and individual income averages $3,000 a year. Kosovo's economy is largely a black market for cigarettes and human trafficking. Corruption and organized crime rule the streets.

But those circumstances only add volume to 2 million people's cry to be independent and free.

The lesson is that freedom can't be forced on a people. But in Kosovo, the poor, mostly Muslim populace is reaching out for democracy. The United States and the international community should lend a hand.

Some warn Kosovo's independence could fire up separatist movements elsewhere, including Spain and Greece.

Such fears recall the domino theory wrongly applied to Vietnam, and to Latin America after Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba.

History has shown the world is far more complex. One country does not necessarily catch a cold when another sneezes.

That Russia and Serbia oppose Kosovo's independence only bolsters the need to support the province that was once part of Yugoslavia.

In 1999, the United States led the NATO campaign that forced Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw forces from Kosovo. At the time, Milosevic was waging a brutal military onslaught against the insurgency led by Thaci.

An estimated 10,000 civilians were killed in 1998 and 1999, many of them Albanians. Hundreds of thousands more fled. The United Nations has administered Kosovo since 1999.

An attack on the U.S. Embassy in Serbia Thursday to protest Kosovo's declaration of independence shows its road to freedom won't be easy - or free.

The United States gave Kosovo $77 million last year and expects to spend $335 million this year.

That's no bargain, considering the meager returns so far. But it's cheap compared with what this country has received in return for the $10 billion a month it has spent in Iraq the last five years.

Now that Kosovo has begun its journey down the path to freedom, there should be no turning back. The right course is to help Kosovo complete its desired destiny.